My Focus

Damon Gbuduala Azali-Rojas

Principal and Coach

Since our inception, Destiny Coaching & Consulting has been totally focused on helping you evolve as a leader, a change agent and a spiritual being.

Welcome to your Destiny,

As a coach, priest and healer, I help spiritual seekers with a social conscience connect heaven and earth.

When we feel bound in our relationships, in a confused fog about what’s next, grasping for what will make us feel whole, we often try to look outside of ourselves for the answers—a new job/organization, a new partner, a cute new pair of shoes (that were on sale)—all in an attempt to satiate the pit of emptiness and hunger. In times like these we must connect to our needs and CTL+ALT+DEL our sense of balance. From inward understanding we can plug into something bigger than ourselves and connect to our purpose and destiny.

My training as a community organizer in South Central Los Angeles taught me to observe and assess material conditions—what was occurring on the ground and how to move those conditions forward to win social justice victories. My studies to become an Ifa Priest (Babalawo) speak of things happening in the spiritual realm before manifesting in the world. I try to live right in the sweet spot of awareness— between the metaphysical and physical, between heaven and earth. For some of you heaven is the influence of God, Orisas or ancestors. Still others touch this heaven through their work in social justice movements. My work as a coach helps harness the infinite that allows you to fulfill your mission and effect concrete change here in the world.

Through which ever path you first choose I will support you to find clarity and forward movement. You will figure out what keeps you settling for the same old, same old. What has you giving up or giving away your power. You will find “what you are looking for” and find what lies beneath “what you are looking for.” Together we will seek out your truth and put it into action.

About Me

What is in a Name?

Amongst the Yoruba people in Southwestern Nigeria names are very important. They are seen as ways of naming the core essence of someone. Names are also prayers—reminding you of who you are and of your destiny. A name can be a spiritual invitation to connect to your essence. Names can be self-chosen or given. My name is Damon Gbuduala Azali-Rojas. My journey of names is one that tells a lot about who I am.

Damon is the name that my mother gave me. It means truest friend. She actually got it from the 1973 movie called the Exorcist. If you remember, Father Damien was the priest that saved the world from the Devil. She saw the movie when she was 4 months pregnant with me, played around with the name in her head and came out with Damon.

Sometime around the turn of the millennium when I was being trained to be a civil rights community organizer, I was inspired by the words of Malcolm X. He said that many of the names that Black people had in the US were names of the slave masters that owned their ancestors. As I was organizing against the modern day manifestations and legacy of slavery and exploitation, I desired an African name. I chose the Swahili name Azali which means “eternal” or “without beginning.” For me this connected to time immortal and the continent where human life originated.

I met my partner Cynthia while we were organizing. She is a gifted organizer, trainer and coach. She is of Mexican descent and her last name was Rojas. We decided to hyphenate our names to show our (then future) children Maceo (Spanish pronunciation) and Fasola (Yoruba pronunciation) that they came from two distinct peoples and that they would gain strength from the knowledge of both histories and cultures.

I got initiated into the Yoruba spiritual tradition of Ifa about a decade ago and I continue to study to be a proficient Ifa Priest (called Babalawo). The process of training never ends but takes ten to twenty years to become proficient. Given my purpose and destiny to be a priest and healer I was given the name Gbuduala. (Pronounced “Boo-doo-A-la” more or less) It means: “One who glows with the whiteness of character.” This is definitely a big name that requires a lot of thought to live into.

I have thought about simplifying and just going by my spiritual name and I have decided against it. My names pay homage to my mother, my wife’s people, my people and my God. I am curious what name speaks to your essence?